Vanessa Libby has always loved working with dogs. Earlier in her adult life she worked for a breeder of English bulldogs and that experience began her love affair with the breed. It also gave her an opportunity to work in an environment that didn’t require her to interact much with people. For most of her adult life, Vanessa struggled with a heroin addiction and, as a result, she was in and out of prison on at least four occasions. “I guess throughout my addiction, my communication was off with people so I liked being there doing my job with the animals and not really having to socialize with people,” she said.
After her last 22-month stint in prison and after she battled a heart condition that required her to undergo open heart surgery to replace her biological heart valves with mechanical ones, she says she had a wakeup call. “I had to go to prison after that surgery. So my time in incarceration was really building a foundation for being back in my mom’s life and my kids’,” she said. She’s been sober ever since. “I was tired of the life, and I wanted to do something different.” She says she no longer associates with any of the people she associated with during her addiction.
She connected with Journey to New Life about seven months before her release. She was skittish about the idea of living in Peace House with a bunch of females after completing her time in a female prison, but her mom stood steadfast in not allowing her to return home. Then something else happened. “I met Sister Patty, and she’s just such a blessing. She really made me feel comfortable so I stayed,” Vanessa said.
But that’s not all. Vanessa also began to pursue a career that would give her a skill that’s almost recession-proof. As of December 23, 2020, she’s a proud graduate of The Grooming Project, a new social enterprise training program in Kansas City that’s working to end the cycle of poverty by providing training that enables single parents to become self-reliant. She’s gone full circle with her love of working with animals, but this time, in a more positive way. She’s hoping to one day have the opportunity to start her own business. “I’ve always wanted to do a boarding business, and this is just one more thing I can add,” she said. “I definitely hope one day in the future I can go back to the Lebanon area and open up a business near the interstate.” She still has a fondness for English bulldogs, but she’s also come to love Poodles and Doodles through her experience with grooming.
Employment empowers. It is an important part of reentry, and former offenders have tough barriers to overcome. Consider these unemployment rates for ex-offenders versus the general public reported by the Prison Policy Initiative in their report titled “Out of Prison & Out of Work”:
Programs like The Grooming Project and so many others allow Journey to New Life to work to equip clients with the skills and opportunities they need to overcome barriers to employment. Work works.
